Disney's VW Love Bug aka "Herbie": WIP

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

This is the Polar Lights snap together kit of The Love Bug, the main character from Disney's 1968 movie by the same name. The car, more commonly known by the name Herbie is based on a Volkswagen 1963 Type 1 Deluxe. All the Volkswagen corporate emblems were removed by the movie studio to prevent copywrite infringment and the model kits follows suit.

The kit itself is of good quality and engineering, as are all Polar Lights snap together kits I've built so far. Though simple in nature, Polar Lights kits lean more toward the complex end of the snap together spectrum and sometimes straddle the boundary between snap together kits and more traditional kits that require glue to assemble. 

This means that Polar Lights snap together kits can be assembled well enough without glue and paint but to achieve the kit's full potential, these kits should be regarded as simplified glue together kits. And I build them as such.

This is the VW Love Bug, AKA "Herbie" kit by Polar Lights. Because everybody loves Herbie!

 

 

The engine went together quickly and just as Herbie is a representation of a typical VW, this engine is a "representation" of the typical VW engine.  This is of course painted and detailed.

 

 

Just one example of why this is a "representation" of a VW engine rather than a scale model of one is the distributor. It looks like a fuel pump. There are a few other inaccuracies but as a whole, it does the job well enough.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post any comments you may have.

David G.

Edited April 15, 2024 by David G.
Updated Title

[LennyB]

Hey, where's Dean Jones & Buddy Hackett???

 

Looks like an interesting build and should be a fun one.?

[Dann Tier]

Love Herbie!...i will be following for sure!

[David G.]

17 hours ago, LennyB said:

Hey, where's Dean Jones & Buddy Hackett???

 

Looks like an interesting build and should be a fun one.?

Alas, Dean Jones & Buddy Hackett are no longer with us.    Michelle Lee is still around but she declined to appear.

It is a fun build so far, quick and easy. Thanks for following Len.

2 hours ago, Dann Tier said:

Love Herbie!...i will be following for sure!

I'm glad to see you back on the boards Dann. Thanks for your interest.

David G.

Edited March 31, 2024 by David G.
typo

[slusher]

Linsey Lohan did an ok job herself..

[Deathgoblin]

Love it!    Gonna have to get one of these.  I've heard the "real" Herbie had an engine out of a Porsche and was surprisingly quick.

 

[OldNYJim]

Good start David!  I’ll be following along!

[Zippi]

Great start on ole Herbie there David.  The engine is looking pretty nice.

[David G.]

22 hours ago, slusher said:

Linsey Lohan did an ok job herself..

If you're referring to the movie from the early 2000's Carl, I didn't see that one. 

 

17 hours ago, Deathgoblin said:

Love it!    Gonna have to get one of these.  I've heard the "real" Herbie had an engine out of a Porsche and was surprisingly quick.

 

Thank you Brian. I heard that too. At least one of them had a Porsche six-cylinder. I also read that over the course of the first four movies Disney used up about 50 VWs.

 

8 hours ago, CabDriver said:

Good start David!  I’ll be following along!

Thanks Jim. It'll not be nearly as nice as your most recent VW build but it will be just as much fun.

 

2 minutes ago, Zippi said:

Great start on ole Herbie there David.  The engine is looking pretty nice.

Thanks Bob. Aside from the distributor/fuel pump flub and the weird intake manifolds, it's not a bad rendition of a VW engine.

There aren't many out there, strangely.

David G.

[Dirkpitt289]

Very cool, I saw all the Herbe movies as a kid, I need to get one into my collection

[David G.]

23 hours ago, Dirkpitt289 said:

Very cool, I saw all the Herbe movies as a kid, I need to get one into my collection

Thank you Dirk.

The kits are still out there and they're not usually too pricey. Some builders have also used Tamiya's 1966 VW Beetle with aftermarket decals.

David G.

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

It's beginning to look like this will be a quick build, in spite of all the adjustments I'm having to make to get the parts to fit the way I want them to.

With the engine assembled and installed in the chassis, it's time to start test fitting some of the other bits. If one looks toward the front of the chassis a misalignment of the front axle can be seen.

 

 

As the front suspension assembly snaps into the chassis in its default position, some alignment issues become evident.

 

 

A bit of filing and tweaking corrects most of the crookedness. This, and the inherent looseness of the metal axle should give me a good base and allow me to make any minor adjustments required during final assembly.

 

 

Testing the ride height and wheel alignment. The ride is a little high but I can live with this.

 

That's all for this round. As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to share your opinions and observations.

David G.

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

It's time for the next Love Bug update.

My research revealed that the car in the Love Bug movies was painted in VW's pearl white. I decided that Tamiya's TS-45 Pearl White should work well enough. 

I initially painted the pearl white directly over Tamiya's light grey primer. To my eye, the result looked a little more silver than white. As shown on the trunk lid. 

This was not quite what I wanted so I tried putting down a coat of Tamiya TS-26 Pure White with the Pearl White over top of that. Though not perfect, the result was much more in line with my expectations.

 

 

I decided to paint the rest of the body using this method. I think the color is a little too bright but once everything is put together it should look fine.

 

 

That's it for this round, more updates soon.

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to share your opinions tips and observations.

David G. 

[Steve H]

Hi David, this coming together nicely. That Tamiya pearl white does not cover well at all. In my opinion it needs a white base, exactly what you have done. Looks right to me sir. Doesn’t look like you found too many rabbit holes on this one yet!?

[T-Ray]

1 hour ago, David G. said:

Hello Everybody!

It's time for the next Love Bug update.

My research revealed that the car in the Love Bug movies was painted in VW's pearl white. I decided that Tamiya's TS-45 Pearl White should work well enough. 

I initially painted the pearl white directly over Tamiya's light grey primer. To my eye, the result looked a little more silver than white. As shown on the trunk lid. 

This was not quite what I wanted so I tried putting down a coat of Tamiya TS-26 Pure White with the Pearl White over top of that. Though not perfect, the result was much more in line with my expectations.

I hate to be a pain but I think Volkswagen's "Pearl White" name is really misleading. From what I can tell, Herbie is an off-white kinda like Wimbleton White, as opposed to white with pearl. 

[250 Testa Rossa]

The actual VW color is L-87 Pearl White, and is available from ScaleFinishes

[David G.]

22 hours ago, Steve H said:

Hi David, this coming together nicely. That Tamiya pearl white does not cover well at all. In my opinion it needs a white base, exactly what you have done. Looks right to me sir. Doesn’t look like you found too many rabbit holes on this one yet!?

Thanks Steve. That's one of the things that I love about this hobby, there's always something new to learn.

VW wouldn't come up with the Rabbit for nearly a decade yet.

So no Rabbit, no holes.   This one's going to be a pretty straight-forward build, just some minor tweaks here and there.

 

22 hours ago, T-Ray said:

I hate to be a pain but I think Volkswagen's "Pearl White" name is really misleading. From what I can tell, Herbie is an off-white kinda like Wimbleton White, as opposed to white with pearl. 

Thanks for the tip Tom. I kind of worked that one out, all the details will be in the next update.

20 hours ago, 250 Testa Rossa said:

The actual VW color is L-87 Pearl White, and is available from ScaleFinishes

Thank you for that Maxx. I did eventually realize that I didn't have the correct color. Though I didn't buy the actual VW L-87 I did come up with a suitable substitute. I'll have all the details in the next update.

Thanks to everybody for your comments.

David G.

[slusher]

Would Tamiya racing white been very close?

[David G.]

22 hours ago, slusher said:

Would Tamiya racing white been very close?

Spot-on with that Carl!

It's close, I just ended up having to work some paint magic to get it where I wanted it to be as you'll see below.

David G. 

[David G.]

Hello Everybody!

Okay, there's been a change of plan. Upon further consideration and additional research, I've decided that this white just ain't right. It's too frosty and cold looking for Herbie. The white used on the Love Bug was VW L87 Pearl White. I mistakenly assumed that this was a "pearl" color and went with Tamiya TS-45 Pearl White. I mean, pearl is pearl, right? 

Wrong.

I discovered that VW L87 is *not* a pearl color, it's just an off-white color. I had initially considered using Tamiya TS-7 Racing White but found its shade to be a little too yellow or ivory. But when sprayed on top of the Pure White and Pearl White, Racing White picks up just enough brightness to bring it satisfactorily close to the correct VW color.

 

 

The color that I believe I need is somewhere in between the trunk lid and the wheel thingy. It's the average of the two.

Back to the paint shop!

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to comment.

David G.

[LennyB]

Wheel "thingy", David this is getting too technical for me.?

Hard to believe that such a simple kit can create such problems with the color. Guess you are proving the theory that white is not always white. Keep it up thought I think you are on the right track

[David G.]

19 hours ago, LennyB said:

Wheel "thingy", David this is getting too technical for me.?

Hard to believe that such a simple kit can create such problems with the color. Guess you are proving the theory that white is not always white. Keep it up thought I think you are on the right track

Thanks for your comment Len.

I guess I let my disappointed opinion regarding the accuracy of the part slip through. I was hoping that at least the spare would be an old style five-lug VW wheel.

I mean, who puts their spare in the trunk with a hub cap on it? ? 

 

I also got the color issue mostly worked out, details will be in the next update.

Thanks again,

David G.

[stitchdup]

19 minutes ago, David G. said:

I mean, who puts their spare in the trunk with a hub cap on it? ? 

volkswagen owners

[milo1303s]

On 3/30/2024 at 10:05 AM, David G. said:

Hello Everybody!

This is the Polar Lights snap together kit of The Love Bug, the main character from Disney's 1968 movie by the same name. The car, more commonly known by the name Herbie is based on a Volkswagen 1963 Type 1 Deluxe. All the Volkswagen corporate emblems were removed by the movie studio to prevent copywrite infringment and the model kits follows suit.

The kit itself is of good quality and engineering, as are all Polar Lights snap together kits I've built so far. Though simple in nature, Polar Lights kits lean more toward the complex end of the snap together spectrum and sometimes straddle the boundary between snap together kits and more traditional kits that require glue to assemble. 

This means that Polar Lights snap together kits can be assembled well enough without glue and paint but to achieve the kit's full potential, these kits should be regarded as simplified glue together kits. And I build them as such.

This is the VW Love Bug, AKA "Herbie" kit by Polar Lights. Because everybody loves Herbie!

 

 

The engine went together quickly and just as Herbie is a representation of a typical VW, this engine is a "representation" of the typical VW engine.  This is of course painted and detailed.

 

 

Just one example of why this is a "representation" of a VW engine rather than a scale model of one is the distributor. It looks like a fuel pump. There are a few other inaccuracies but as a whole, it does the job well enough.

 

As always, thanks for taking the time to look and please feel free to post any comments you may have.

David G.

the distributor cap would be a dark red almost orange color and the piece to the side is the vacuum advance for timing  

[David G.]

On 4/8/2024 at 5:06 AM, stitchdup said:

volkswagen owners

 

Oh, yeah! I remember those tool kits Les.

I used to see them in VW magazines and at car shows (remember Bug-O-Rama?).  Unfortunately none of the five Bugs I've owned ever had one.  

What I was hoping for was something more like an actual early VW wheel like this.

 

Like the one in the movie which had been "Made into a pizza" by Thorndyke.

I have several VW kits in my parts box but the wheels form those kits are all slugs similar to the one in this kit. There were some  Empi mags and Porsche wheels but no standard WV wheels... of any kind. 

Thinking about it, I don't know if I've ever seen an old VW wheel in kit form.

Well, at any rate. I've accepted things as they are and I'm ready to move on from this. 

Unless a stock VW wheel shows up, then all bets are off!  

Thanks again for your comment Les.

 

14 hours ago, milo1303s said:

the distributor cap would be a dark red almost orange color and the piece to the side is the vacuum advance for timing  

Indeed you are correct Bob.

But that thing which they put where the distributor is supposed to be looks more like a fuel pump than a distributor. So I painted it as such. ? 

 

I just figured that maybe it's some kind of "Movie Magic" thing.  Maybe it's the thing that makes Herbie sentient. Maybe it's a magneto. Maybe it's just a mistake.

It could be any one of a number of things. One thing it's not is a distributor.

I thought about addressing the situation by using one the prewired distributors I have in stock but decided against it.  I'm trying to avoid rabbit holes on this build.

Besides, I'm kind of thinking of this kit as more of a cartoon character than a model car. Seeing it as such allows me to accept this... and some of the other inconsistencies and errors it offers.

Thanks for the comment Bob, I do appreciate your feedback.